by Sunnie SabolGetting Through the Holidays, Tips you can use now!
Holiday weight gain is real! A new study out of Finland researched over 3,000 people, they looked at weight patterns for over a year. The conclusion, most of us gain weight starting as early as October and the worse part is it can take over 5 months to loose the extra weight!
I wrote these tips for my patients, so they would not be one of those statistics. These tips also help you enjoy the holiday season with out filling deprived! Some of them may seem simple but if you make them a priority to add to your routine during the holidays, you will feel and look better for it.
Tips For Surviving The Holidays
· Make your workouts or walking a priority. Continuing some kind of movement during the more stressful times of the holidays is crucial to keeping you on track physically and mentally!
· Drink Water, Hydration is important. Drink a minimum of 80oz a day.
· If you are following a more ketogenic lifestyle, add a pink of Pink Himalayan salt to few glasses of water during the day.
· Before going to a holiday party or dinner, have a protein shake to help curb your appetite.
· Drink a shot (4/6 oz) of apple cider vinegar daily, this will help with digestion. You can also do a shot before each meal.
· Make drinking 2 Ketones a day a priority.
· Choose your alcohol wisely! Drink Vodka with seltzer and lime. Try to stay away from beer and wine.
· At the party or dinner, skip the carb loaded bread! Look for veggies with full fat dip, sausage and cheese skip the crackers.
· Use Natural Sweeteners like Stevia or Xylitol. Switch out sugar in your holiday baking recipes for Swerve or Coconut Sugar.
· Switch out white flour in your holiday baking also for almond or coconut flour.
· No vegetable oils, margarine, corn oil, canola oil, hydrogenated oils, crisco, or peanut oil.
*Eliminate Carbonated beverages. They block calcium absorption and slow digestion
*Eat Salad with lunch and dinner. Eating a salad made with fresh vegetables helps to stimulate digestion and adds fiber, which helps to regulate blood sugar. ** Extra tip, sprinkle salad with whole food fiber, this will help you stay fuller longer and decrease your craving to over eat.***
· Acupuncture, continue or incorporate acupuncture treatments. Acupuncture resets your cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and also helps to regulate blood sugar.
I hope you found those tips to be of help to you. If you are looking for more ways to stop the holiday weight gain or for better overall health, please click on the make appointment button, I would love to meet you and help you form a healthcare plan that is right for you.
I have one more tip for you all, as a way to say Thank you! I am often asked what do I eat?? well I have to admit I have some favorite holiday dishes I don't want to give up, so I did some experimenting in the kitchen and came up with a keto version of my favorite holiday side dish...Stuffing. The recipe is below. I hope you enjoy it!
A Keto Stuffing
Ingredients:
Loaf of Keto Bread ( I purchased from Amazon, Thin Slim brand. I also found keto bread at whole foods market or can make your own cloud bread)
1 cup Celery
1 cup Onion
1 Apple (optional)
2 cloves of Garlic
1 teaspoon dried Sage
2 packets of Better Broth Keto Thyme (by Pruvit)
1 packet of MCT 143 (By Pruvit or other high quality oil)
1 cup of Organic Chicken Broth
Salt / Pepper to taste
Instructions:
· Cut bread into cubes
· Spread cubes on a large baking sheet, drizzle with a little MCT 143.
· Toss packet of Thyme Better Broth over bread cubes, mix to incorporate
· Bake bread @ 400 in oven till its toasted.
· While bread is toasting in oven, begin to cut up onion, celery, and apple.
· In a sauté pan drizzle a little MCT 143 on medium
· Add onion & celery cook for 2-3 minutes
· Then add, apple, garlic, sage & salt pepper continue to cook mixture until onions are clear and soft.
· Once bread is toasted to your liking, remove from oven and allow to stand.
· In a mixing bowl add Chicken broth, and packet of Keto Thyme Better Broth, slightly stir to mix.
· Add Bread Crumbs & onion celery mixture to bowl. Gently mix all ingredients together till completely incorporated. (if needed add more broth, until bread moist but not soggy)
· Transfer to baking dish, if needed coat dish with oil or butter to prevent sticking.
· Cover and bake @350 for 30-40 minutes, I removed cover for last 5 minutes to brown the top a little.
· Serve with Turkey and enjoy
by Sunnie SabolFor couples that are trying to conceive with out results find themselves dealing with stresses they have never experienced before, and are at a loss has to how to deal with them. Being diagnosed as infertile is difficult, but for a woman it can be divesting. The primary function of the female reproductive system is reproduction of life. Facing the possibility that our right as a woman may not happen leaves some feeling broken and as a failure. Studies show that women undergoing fertility treatments have the same stress levels as women who have cancer or HIV (CBS News.com) Women are tenacious as a whole and will not give up there dreams easily, Western medicine offers women a chance at their dreams and millions are responding to well publicized miracles that are being produced. Unfortunately for many who choose this path the miracles they read about soon turn into fairy tales and not reality. Learning how to deal with stress of fertility is crucial if couples want to experience the joy they dream of.
Chinese Medicine offers a whole body approach to treating fertility. TCM and Tao see us as microcosms of the universe. Our bodies are tied to the ebb and flow of nature. In our modern society we disconnect from the natural laws of life. When this happens our qi begins to stagnate and deplete, Qi is our vital life force when qi becomes deficient disease will occur and we are not living in a state of vitality. In the Yellow Emperor of classic internal medicine states
“ Only man, among all the manifestations of energy in the universe, collectively & constituently has a choice to follow or defy these laws. All other manifestations of this energy from rocks to apes follow their inner rhythms” (Ni, 1995).
Nothing disconnects us more from our inner rhythms than receiving treatment for an illness in the western world. While grateful for the science intervention during a heart attack or stroke. Receiving treatment for infertility in the west is a very sterile and cold process. Drugs are administered to alter the way a woman’s body ovulates, Blood is drawn & tests are administered. Even the natural way of creating new life is cold and sterile, instead of the warm embrace of love and compassion between two people during conception, men are sent to a room to deposit there “essence” in a plastic cup and women are sent to another room to lay on a cold table with doctors and nurses who use medical device’s to surgically assist in conception of life. The chronic imbalance of the process creates more stress. Our body response to stress is to go into “Fight or Flight” mode, rising cortisol levels, triggers our immune system to protect the body from foreign cells. We can’t be in fight mode and a receptive mode at the same time, the body will not allow it. Our own bodies are fighting the vary thing we want most. Couples whose path has not yet lead them all the way to medical intervention also have a great amount of stress also. The daily routine of taking our temperature in the morning and recording it on the basal body temperature sheet, the monthly quest of the highly coveted “blue stick” and the constant up and down roller coaster of emotions leave couples feeling overwhelmed. For some couples the added stress to the relationship is too much, relationships that once were solid are now broken. Studies show that the divorce rate is higher in childless marriages.
Intimacy between couples is challenged, once a way for couples to connect and recharge their relationship is turned into a timed and mechanical event. A recent study in Fertility and Sterility showed 40% of infertile women suffered from sexual problems that caused them distress, compared with 25 percent of a control group of healthy women. (Fertility and Sterility, March, 2010. www.fertstert.org) Not only is sex timed but for some women with various conditions such as endometriosis or pelvic adhesions sex can be painful, leaving the woman feeling more depressed about herself. Couples must find ways to reclaim their reproductive health and relationships.
Eastern Medicine views are bodies tuned to the time and tide of nature, the rhythm of day and night, the four seasons, and so on, our health is directly tied to the environment we live in. You see this correlation in when we wake and when we sleep, and in the winter we “catch” more colds. A women’s monthly cycle is one of the most natural ways women are connected to nature. Studies show woman’s monthly menses correlates with the lunar phase of the month. Increased numbers of women ovulate and conception rates peak during the full moon, and during the new moon menses begins. Traditional Chinese medicine’s philosophy is based on the connection of humanity and nature, and the interplay of opposites. The theory of Yin and Yang, Yin is light and Yang is dark. The two cannot be separated and you cannot have one with out the other. The interplay between yin and yang is constantly shifting in our body. For example in women’s reproductive system estrogen is yin and progesterone is yang. The yin hormone estrogen dominates the follicular phase of menstruation, and the Luteal phase of menses is dependent on the yang hormone progesterone, you cannot have a healthy normal cycle with out the hormones present.
Acupuncture and Eastern medicine have personally helped me conceive two beautiful children when western medicine could not. If you or someone you know is dealing with fertility problems please share this with them!
